Recent reports suggest that “Europe’s cultural and creative sector has been hit harder by the coronavirus crisis than every other industry except aviation.”
The study is allegedly calling for a fair share of heavy public and private investment to avert a disaster and prevent long term damage to the creative sector.
“According to the report, revenues in the sector – which includes TV, cinema, radio, music, publishing, video games and the performing and visual arts – plunged by 31.2% last year compared with 2019. It was hit even harder than tourism, which lost 27% of its income,” The Guardian reported.
Besides the creative industries, it is said that it is only the aviation industry, where revenue fell by 31.4%, has suffered more, say the authors of the report, commissioned by EU authors’ and creators’ rights organisations and due to be presented to the European commission this week.
Data suggests that the cultural and creative sector employed about 7.6 million people, in 2019, before the pandemic hit. Culture was the first sector to suspend most of its activities, and will probably be the last to resume without restrictions.
According to the study’s coordinator Marc Lhermitte, “Covid shockwaves had been felt across the sector, with revenues collapsing by 90% in the performing arts and 76% in the music industry. Visual arts, books, the press, films and TV saw declines of between 20% and 40%, while only video games – whose turnover rose 9% – held up.”
European cinemas were estimated to have lost about 75% of their earnings. Royalties collected for authors and performers by rights organisations had fallen by 35% in 2020, the report said, meaning many would inevitably suffer a sharp fall in earnings over the next two years even if business picked up in 2021.
The study suggests that since more than 90% of operators in the cultural and creative sector are independent authors and artists or small or medium-sized independent companies, the shift online has created “a real risk that their unbalanced relationships with global internet platforms” will jeopardise their futures.
“The critical period we are going through demands truly unprecedented measures. Europe’s creative sector has never known such economic devastation in the past, and its profound after-effects will be felt throughout the coming decade,” the report concluded.
